Well it has been almost a year since I last blogged. Seems like life and my 2nd year of graduate school got the best of my blogging efforts over the past year.  Now that I am finished with graduate school and enjoying a different pace of life just working without also balancing school responsibilities I hope to blog more often.  Let's be honest if I blog twice between now and next August I will be doing better! Haha

Reading a friend's blog today I saw she had this list for potential blog topics so I am stealing this list from her blog. No promises on blogging about all of these but this list provides some good ideas for things to blog about.

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.
2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.
3. Describe your relationship with your parents.
4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.
5. What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?
6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?
7. What is your dream job, and why?
8. What are 5 passions you have?
9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.
10. Describe your most embarrasing moment.
11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
14. Describe 5 strengths you have.
15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?
17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?
19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.
24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What is your love language?
29. What do you think people misundertand most about you?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

Love this article

Great to read about motherhood as a professional athlete. My hat is off to Christie Rampone!

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/christie-rampone-of-boca-ratons-magicjack-balances-life-1750998.html

Jesus Calling

I read this today in Jesus Calling and thought I would share it.

Bring me all your feelings, even the ones you wish you didn't have. Fear and anxiety still plague you. Feelings per se are not sinful, but they can be temptations to sin. Blazing missiles of fear fly at you day and night; these attacks from the evil one come at you relentlessly. Use your shield of faith to extinguish those flaming arrows. Affirm your trust in Me, regardless of how you feel. If you persist, your feelings will eventually fall in line with your faith.

Do not hide your fear or pretend it isn't there. Anxiety that you hide in the recesses of your heart will give birth to fear of fear; a monstrous stepchild. Bring your anxieties out into the Light of My Presence, where we can deal with them together. Concentrate on trusting Me, and fearfulness will gradually lose its foothold within you.

Interesting...

Well that is one way to transport a bike if you drive a convertible

Heard this song today

Better Than A Hallelujah by Amy Grant

God loves a lullaby
In a mother's tears in the dead of night
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes

God loves the drunkard's cry
The soldier's plea not to let him die
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful, the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah

The woman holding on for life
The dying man giving up the fight
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes

The tears of shame for what's been done
The silence when the words won't come
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah

Better than a church bell ringing
Better than a choir singing out, singing out

We pour out out miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful, the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful, the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah

(Better than a Hallelujah sometimes)
Better than a Hallelujah
(Better than a Hallelujah sometimes)

Hilarious

Today as I was watching golf this happened and it was hilarious

http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2011/05/video-turtle-dives-into-water-off-16th-green-at-tpc-sawgrass.html

Oh Life...

One of my best friends and her husband moved to Germany today. While I am thankful for skype it will not be the same as being able to pick up the phone and call.

This looks gross

I do not find this picture appetizing at all. Something about the meet just sticking out of the wrap just doesn't do it for me.

The EPSY's

I watched the ESPY's last night and they were nothing short of hilarious. For those who watched any of the World Cup I think you will find this clip hilarious.

New things in my life . . .

Blackboard
Scholarly articles
A $34 parking pass
Textbooks
Homework
Classmates
Tuition
A student ID

What must this list of items mean (drum roll please)?

You guessed it. I am a graduate student.

I am getting my Master's in Student Affairs from Clemson University. I started taking 1 class during the current summer session 1 term and I am LOVING it! I know the newness of being a student will probably where off (maybe not, who knows?!) but it has been very enjoyable so far.

"Why is Jackie awake, I thought she was a mom?"

The other night I was texting with a friend of mine who works in youth ministry who had a high school friend visiting her. I had been around them both throughout the weekend due to our church's mission conference and a lovely ultimate frisbee game on saturday afternoon. So sunday i was texting brooke and the conversation went like this after the first text I sent her around 11 pm Sunday night:

Brooke: Mackenzie (Brooke's friend that is a junior in high school) just said "why is jackie awake, isn't she a mom?" Haha!! So so funny. She said she just thought you were a cool mom.

Me: A mom!!! What made her think I was a mom?

Brooke: Not sure

Another funny thing is earlier in the weekend Brooke who is 29 was asked if her friend Mackenzie was her daughter. Brooke would have had to have had her at age 13 for her to be her daughter.

Thanks for making this so clear. . .

Don't you wonder if every car you see on the road has drugs on board? I know I do. It was so nice of the owner of this vehicle to make it so clear that they have no drugs on board. If only every car owner was so considerate!

Not Me December. . .

So Jacqueline what has been going on in your life lately? Well let me tell you by running through certain "life circumstances" that I have found myself in the past few weeks:

• I feel down the stairs while home for Thanksgiving (I am still a little sore)
• I have been going to PT for my shoulder which is helping but has been discouraging at times
  
• I have been overseeing our Campus Outreach conference that will take place 12/29-1/2 which has made the past 3 weeks very intense
  
• I have been sick with a cold off and on
• Last Thursday on the way home from work my car was totaled due to a car accident that was not my fault (not helping the shoulder injury mentioned above or my stress level)
  
• I have been driving my grandma's car and hit a coworkers car as I was leaving work tonight
• I an continuing to wade through a quarter life crisis (AKA what am I going to do with my life)
  

All of this has led me to proclaiming I am TIRED of life and need a break.

Ridiculous

Who wants an ICE CREAM cake that is shaped like a turkey!?! Here is the description straight from the Baskin Robbins website:

"Wow them with this centerpiece of your dessert table. Choose your favorite ice cream flavor, glazed in chocolate and caramel. Be sure to enjoy the sugar cone turkey legs!"

I don't think I will be enjoying any sugar cone turkey legs this Thanksgiving.

The Plague. . .

So a "plague" or illness known as "the throw ups" has been going around among my co-workers and friends. Just when I thought I had dodged "the throw ups" bullet it hit me and it hit me hard! I woke up Monday morning not quite feeling myself but thought I could go to work anyways (wishful thinking on my part). I was supposed to eat lunch with a friend at 12 which did not quite go as planned. I made it to McAlisters only to have to leave and frantically pull over on the way home to throw up. Needless to say I drove home after this episode only for many more to follow. Thankfully in only lasted 24 hours. After not eating for nearly 2 days I decided to jump back into the world of food by getting some chicken noodle soup from Chick Fil A. So far so good.

It's funny how after spending a day hugging the toilet in misery you don't quite look at it the same way when you go to sit down on it the next time.

Love a good funny website. . .

During my weekly checking of www.peopleofwalmart.com I discovered a new website that has made it to my list of new favs. So the website is www.thereifixedit.com.

Here are a few classic "There I Fixed It" pictures from the website:

To Tweet or Not To Tweet?

10. To share exciting wins and victories throughout the day

Katherinekiki: Finally I think I have the twins (the ones i tutor that i cant tell apart) figured out. Cassie has the mole. Alex has the lisp.

9. Its a way to lovingly call people out on sin

candrefields: In case you missed Driscoll on Nightline http://abcnews.go.com/Night... to katherinekiki this is for u (Andre aka Lynn Barry called out Kiki on her celebrity worship)

8. Where else can you stalk your pop culture dream idol from your own home? / Or profess your love for your celebrity crush?

katherinekiki to heidimontag im just waiting to see if you will show up in my timeline...again i love you

7. It is the way to share the gospel with celebrities.

emilyallison200 to heidimontag Not trying to be mean or anything, but your love for Jesus never appears on the Hills or anywhere else. Why?

6. You can share how your day was.

emilyallison200: awful night :( awful.

5. Pass on your wisdom to others.

jwinterbishop marriage is great and all but you only have one person to laugh with. We have five. what if the one person is not that funny

4. Share late breaking fashion tips

emilyallison200 painted my nails very cranberry!! I <3>

3. An appropriate venue for playful banter

katherinekiki So excited. I just now got picture messaging for my sweet iPhone. Beat that @lynnbarry627. What you gonna say now??

katherinekiki So jealous of @lynnbarry627's phone

katherinekiki Bull @lynnbarry627 I love my iPhone

@lowens773 so glad that when you grow up you're not gonna go all land's end...unlike @maybelle27

2. A way to communicate unspoken prayer requests

katherinekiki to AirWood I got a couple of unspokens you can pray for... Enjoy your dop

katherinekiki about lowens773 "I'm not gonna tell you what I prayed for cause when it comes true I'll know I prayed for it"

1. To be encourage by women with lives worth emulating to name a few or one...

heidimontag: I had so much fun at my first Playboy party last night! it was amazing that Heff came down to meet me!! Thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whooooooooo praise God!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Jesus savior of my life!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you suffer from Nature-Deficit Disorder?

I am currently reading the book pictured to the left. A friend of mine told me about it and I have been waiting for it to be my turn to read it from the "hold" I have had at the library for the past few months! I finally got it and it's actually due back soon so I have to get reading!

I read the first few chapters today. The book talks about the connection between exposure to nature and healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults. The book describes Nature-Deficit Disorder as: "the human costs of alienation from nature; among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses."

So far it's been very interesting to think about how things have changed from the way past generations grew up playing outside to how the current generation is growing up with little to no interaction with nature and playing outside and all the factors that have played into this change.

Cool videos

These videos by Redeemer church in New York are really interesting.

This is the link: http://renew.redeemer.com/

Enter the site, click on videos along the bottom right and check out the "trailer" and the video on "Alan Kleinberg."

Driving around town

A few ridiculous note worthy cars I have seen while driving around town lately. Seriously I thought Greenville was classier than this!

Car #1: Hercules???

Car #2: Notice the yellow magnet which says "Warning: Unsocialized homeschoolers on board" which is funny enough in and of itself but don't miss the "Dixie: Old times there are never forgotten" bumper sticker. Really homeschooling and DIXIE?!?

Car #3: Don't even know what to say about that. Let's just hope this was some sort of prank.